Eat first, think later.

Menu

Post navigation

At this time of the day tomorrow, I will be happily seated at Meat & Bread in Vancouver, BC with a glass of wine and a sandwich, sitting alone near the window and impressing strangers with my apparent lack of a gag reflex by swallowing said sandwich whole. Solo travel is so romantic, no?

But today, I am still in San Francisco, packing and mentally preparing myself for my week-long feast. First stop is Vancouver, BC but after that? Seattle, WA woohoo!

Seattle, you sexy beast, you.

Like Vancouver and San Francisco, Seattle is a major coastal city with a lot of water everywhere. Like, a lot. To the west of the city is Puget Sound, a run off the Pacific Ocean, and to the east, Lake Washington. It’s all good though, because that means Seattle produces some of the freshest seafood on the West Coast!

Fresh seafood is one of the greatest joys of my life, outside of social justice and napping. There’s just nothing quite like eating something that had to die that day for you to consume, you know? It’s beautiful. It’s American. Perhaps I’ve said too much. Anyway, here is the list.

(As stated in my previous Vancouver Tummy Hit List post, this is not a hard and fast list at all – I will go wherever my tummy takes me!)

One of the most famous restaurants Seattle, serving up scrumptious seafood, delicious drank and lovely decor. The only thing missing? My fat ass, sitting at that counter, eating everything I can reach.

As a solo traveler with the sole intent of visiting faraway cities to eat at the most fabulous restaurants, I understand that eating alone is inevitable – in fact, it is integral part of the vacation experience itself.

But let’s be real: dining alone in any situation could suck ass. We are socialized to see mealtimes as social activities, meant to nourish both the body and mind with the presence of others. Sure, everyone’s had to eat alone at some point (most likely at home, or maybe at school – ugh), but dining out is different.

Kitty is getting real tired of this solo dining shit.

So, if you are expecting to eat out alone at some point, how might you better survive/enjoy the experience?

The beginning of a satisfying solo dining experiences starts with greeting your waiter and letting him or her know that you are dining alone today.

If you’re a social person, ask your waiter to seat you in a more communal area of the restaurant, like the bar or near the entertainment if there is any. Look approachable by limiting time spent checking your smartphone or reading a book and be open to the conversations happening around you.

If you’re an anti-social misanthrope (I mean, adventurous solo traveler) like me, ask for your own table, preferably near the window so you can creep on the people outside (people watching?) as you lick your plates clean. With pro-longed eye contact, of course.

2) Focus on the food.

Forget everything else and feast your eyes on this sexy motherfucker.

Eating is one of the most visceral human experiences, and if you traveled a long way to eat at a particular dish at particular place, soak it all in! Dining solo is a great opportunity to zone out and concentrate solely on what you’re putting in your mouth. Savor it at your own pace.

Also, the best part of eating alone is that you don’t have to share. Not even dessert. Let that sink in for a moment.

Dining alone means getting these bad boys all to yourself, oh yeah.

3) Understand that ain’t nobody else in the restaurant gives a fuck that you’re alone.

Contrary to what your self-consciousness is telling you, no one in the restaurant gives two shits about you eating alone. It’s not that they don’t care about you (well, they’re strangers anyway), it’s that they’re all much more interested in their own conversations and meals to judge you. Really.

And If some trifling ass bitches do give you shit, I recommend standing up, snapping your fingers in a z-formation, whipping your hair back and forth and screaming “U H8 ME CUZ U AIN’T ME” before sitting down to continue your meal.

4) Give zero fucks about eating alone.

Seriously. I want you to reach into your Bag of Fucks to Give About Eating Alone – dig deep – and come up empty fucking handed because you ain’t got none to give.

You do you, gurl. Don’t apologize, don’t give yourself grief about anything and most of all, do not feel sorry for yourself because you are about to eat some really good, soul-warming food in the presence of some of the best company around – your own! So FUCK IT!

Which leads us to…

Tip #5 Enjoy your own company!

A good meal is one part good food and one part good company, and if you can learn to enjoy your own company, you never truly eat alone.

As a frequent solo diner myself, I see eating alone as a chance to unwind, appreciate the delicacies of my meal and think out my thoughts, unknot any mental knots, and flesh out the bare bone ideas of yesterday’s daydreams.

Who knows, your next solo meal could be one of the best you’ve had yet, with only yourself as company. And that would be awesome.

So go on forth to your next solo meal, my dear reader, and eat like the champ you are.

One morning a month ago, I woke up and thought to myself, “Fuck it, imma eat the Pacific Northwest.” (Quickly followed by “fuck it, imma put two teabags in my teacup today YOLO.”)

A gorgeous coastal city with a vibrant immigrant community and a food scene that reflects it , Vancouver, BC was my no-brainer choice for the first stop on the road to Ultimate Tummy Satisfaction. As the day of my departure draws near (August 7), I present to you – in my typical anal fashion – my Tummy Hit List!

Lookin’ good, Vancouver!

Now, dear reader, this is much more than just a list – it is a fucking WAR CRY straight from my stomach. And despite what this list says, nothing is set in stone. If I finish eating at one place and crave for more, you can be sure I will take a bite out of the next person I see CAN’T STOP WON’T STOP OH YEAH.

Hi all! Following my last, bare–it-all post on what’s inside my toiletry bag, I have now for you a few tips on how to pack your own bag with style and ease.

Tip #1 Become familiar with the TSA guidelines for carry-in liquids.

This is especially important if you’re traveling carry-on only. I have seen grown folks tear up at the TSA check lines when their full-sized body lotions or hair sprays are confiscated and thrown away. (I mean, I can’t be the only one that cries right??)

I want you to be intimate with this chart. Embrace it. Make prolonged eye contact with it.

Tip #2 Decide what liquid toiletries you want to bring with you.

If you’re staying at hotel with soap and shampoo provided, you might be able to skip out on bringing those. If not, plan on packing the essentials: shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, body wash, etc. Fewer toiletries = fewer things that could break and leak in your bag!

Tip #3 …But only pack what you’ll actually use.

Before packing my own toiletry bag, I went through all the products I wanted to bring, one by one and asked myself, “Would I cut a bitch for a few seconds to put mascara on?” I would. Into my toiletry bag it goes!

Be honest with yourself and remember that you’re on vacation! For example, “Would I cut a bitch for a few seconds to shave my legs?” Nope. Out goes the shaving cream! (Leg hair, don’t care.)

Tip #4 Find the right containers for your products to reduce breaking and leaking!

Creamier products are less likely to leak but may be more difficult to get out of travel-sized containers. Using wide-mouthed containers for creams help eliminate that difficulty. Liquidy-liquids are best stored in bottle-type containers and packed near the middle of the rest of your toiletries, so as to cushion it while the bag’s being jostled around.

Tip #5 Remember, (depending on your destination) you can always buy anything you weren’t able to pack at a local drugstore.

My sweetass neon orange bag is from Flight 001’s X-Ray Quart Bag line and comes in other visually aggressive colors like neon pink, neon green and non-offensive clear. I love this bag because it fits a ton of stuff and its zippered top feels super secure and leak-proof.

As you may have noticed, I am a huge fan of humangear‘s GoTubbs and GoToobs. They’re expensive but they do an excellent job at keeping everything leak-proof and are adorable as fuck. (That last reason has justified many purchases in my life.)

And there you have it! Everything liquid that could possibly touch my heavenly body in Vancouver and Seattle, all in one quart-sized bag for your voyeuristic viewing pleasure.

Hi! Since my epic solo travels don’t begin until early August, I figure it’d be nice to lay out early on what ya’ll can expect from the blog – from how often I plan on updating, to what I plan on writing about – along with other juicy morsels of knowledge. Enjoy.

The 6 Things You Can Expect From This Blog:

1) 300 to 500-word blog posts on whatever the fuck I want (generally travel and food-related) about 2x a week.

Will I publish two posts in two consecutive days or will I spread ’em out wide like dollar bills on a stripper’s ass? Who knows. We’ll find out.

If you told me a month ago that I’d be going on a week-long solo trip to Canada and Washington, I would have LAUGHED IN YOUR FACE. You see my dear reader… I am not a very adventurous person at all.

Outside of my colorful exploits in social activism and allusions to BDSM clubs I may or may not have gone to in times past, I am at heart, an introverted foodie whose idea of a good Friday night is lying in bed with my laptop, watching cat videos and balancing a burrito between my breasts so I can sip my beer without getting up.

Despite living in one of the most exciting food scenes in America, I’m in bad rut. Plain and simple. More often than not this year, I’ve pussied out of trying new restaurants or even different items on a menu out of fatigue from work or school, or for the sake of routine.

These are all pretty legit reasons but in reality, I’ve gotten comfortable with putting off experiencing new things. I have grown accustomed to waiting for the “perfect time” to go, or the “right” words to say – only to end up never going anywhere or speaking at all.

For example, there’s this cozy, little wine bar a block away from my house that I have never been to. Never! I’ve lived in the same house for over a year and I still haven’t found “the right time” to go or anyone to go with when I wanted to. How fucking sad is that?

San Francisco, CA. Home base.

So why now?

Well, because I’m fucking tired of not doing things. Because there is no such thing as “perfect timing.” Because I want to. Because WHY THE FUCK NOT?

If variety is the spice of life, then I have been subsisting on motherfucking blanched vegetables.

NO. MORE. Come August, I am taking a month-long sabbatical from work to attend back-to-back trainings for 2 weeks for school. But before those trainings, I am taking a meaty bite out of Vancouver & Seattle. I’ve bought my plane tickets, booked my hostels and even made a Google Doc. Shit is official yo.

For the first time in a long time, you won’t be able to find me watching cat videos with no pants on in my room. I will instead be in Vancouver and Seattle, watching cat videos on my smartphone against a new city skyline while stuffing my face with poutine or slurping Happy Hour oysters, and sipping a microbrew out of a straw, nestled in between my breasts.